Political Quotes

“Today I rise to speak on the passage of the fiscal year 2018 Intelligence Authorization Act under suspension of the rules. Unfortunately, I strongly oppose its passage today, not because it is a bad bill. On the contrary, I voted for it out of committee. But today I disagree on how this bill is presented on the floor. The Intelligence Authorization Act should be on regular order and rule and not on suspension. This critically important piece of legislation is the most substantial oversight mechanism that Congress has over the intelligence community, and it deserves full consideration and robust debate. The American public and our intelligence community deserve nothing less. Before authorizing tens of billions of dollars for the United States intelligence community, our lawmakers should carefully consider and debate the issues our intelligence community faces, many of which directly impact our national security. Instead, today's consideration of the IAA has been fast-tracked, and debate has been cut short. Most of the work of the intelligence community and our committee happens behind closed doors, which means that debate on the House floor over the Intelligence Authorization Act is one of the few times the public can engage with the issues facing our intelligence community. By limiting debate on this bill, we cut public engagement off as well. Mr.…”